‘Tis the season of holiday-themed romantic comedies and family fun movies. But one genre that often gets swept under the Christmas tree rug is horror.

On Dec. 4, the movie “Krampus” hits the theaters and it seems to promise some dark comedy and spook in our stockings this year.

“Krampus” is based on a German folktale about a horned creature that punishes bad children during the Christmas season.

Sometimes accompanied with a whip and chains, Krampus drowns, cannibalizes or delivers the children to hell–Krampus is the original bad Santa.

‘Winter Ghosts’

by Kate Mosse

The Great War robbed an entire generation of family, friends and lovers.

If you like to mix history in with your horror, you may like this novel about Freddie Watson who has been unable to cope with losing his brother in the Great War.

Freddie’s grief for his brother was so great he spent years in a sanatorium.

In 1928, Freddie sets off through the French Pyrenees but a snowstorm causes him to seek refuge in a small village in the woods.

There he meets a local woman named Fabrissa and they have a connection.

He confides in her about his loss and she, too, has a dark tale to tell him.

This is beautiful and haunting story that deals with death and tragedy around the holiday season.

This isn’t a “scared of the dark” horror story but a ghostly mystery and touching tale that will make you stick around until the end.

‘Snow’

by Ronald Malfi

This novel is much more wild and dark than the first one.

It starts off with the typical divorced and lonely man, Todd Curry, trying to make it home in time to spend Christmas with his son.

But surprise, a snowstorm happens and ruins everything.

Todd decides to rent a car with a few other stranded travellers.

During the drive, they come across a disoriented man who claims he is looking for his lost daughter.

But something about the man is off.

His story doesn’t seem right and he has strange slashes on his back.

They pick him up and stop in the nearest town but discover it seems eerily stranded. It’s not.

This is where things start to get wild.

It becomes survival horror as Todd and the other travellers are faced with evil forces in a story reminiscent of something made by John Carpenter and H.P. Lovecraft.

‘The Stupidest Angel’

by Christopher Moore

The subtitle of this odd ball is “A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror.”

Little Joshua Barker is not in the Christmas mood, because he witnessed Santa get killed.

He prays that Santa come back from the dead and Archangel Raziel answers that prayer.

But Raziel doesn’t do a very good job.

His “botched sacred mission” turns Christmas-time in Pine Cove into a time of zombies, cannibalism and total chaos.

This dark comedy is full of a quirky ensemble of characters, slight gore and a stupid angel who’s a little lost in translation.

This book is definitely different from anything else you may have read.

Many of the characters in “The Stupidest Angel” have appeared in Moore’s other novels.

But this is a stand-alone story that won’t confuse you if you aren’t familiar with his other work.